Tags projects

Last week I got the chance to attend the Microsoft Project Ignite Training in Warsaw, Poland. Christophe Fiessinger and Jan Kalis went over from Redmond to explain the new features and business opportunities of the new Microsoft Project and SharePoint. Here’s an exec summary from my p0int of view: The […]

Matrix organizations with a strong line organization that are conducting programs are having two key players: program and department managers. Both roles are following competing goals. The program manager is focusing on time, budget and quality – the department manager will look for profitability, team management and corporate strategy. This […]

Program management in matrix organizations works little different than managing a regular project. While a program owner handles the WBS and the schedule, work packages are delegated to departments with focus on delivery. More background information can be found in my last article. This article reflects on the two main […]

Standish Group’s Chaos Report of 2009 states that 68% of all projects are not successful. Due to latest experiences and my research, one important factor to mitigate the risk of failure is having the right resources in place when needed. This article shows how simple temptations in communication combined with missing […]

Standish Group stated in their Chaos Report of 2009 that ~68% of all projects are not successful. For sure, the Chaos Report has recently been discussed controversially. Stefan Hagen has looked behind the numbers published the findings on his blog (German). At the bottom line of many articles, the conclusion […]

Maturity has an immense leverage on the success of programs with lots of depend-encies. Organizations with high maturity have ~30% more probability to deliver successful results than having a low maturity (details in my last article on this subject). Within this article you’ll gain an understanding how program management works […]

Did you know how many projects are not successful caused by low maturity in managing complex landscapes? The Technical University of Berlin (Chair Prof. Dr. Gemuenden) discovered in last year’s study that approx. 50% of all projects fail in complex landscapes. This is where a high degree of dependencies between […]

In March, the Microsoft Project Conference 2012 will be conducted in Phoenix, AZ. I am hosting a session on resource management. As promised before, here’s the abstract: Resources are lacking productivity through competing projects. Cut this Gordian knot of resource planning using Microsoft Project Server and the product CS RME […]

In March, the Microsoft Project Conference 2012 will be conducted in Phoenix, AZ. I am holding a session on program management. As promised before, here’s the abstract: Programs often fail due to divided responsibilities. The program manager’s job is to drive a program through different functional departments. The resource managers […]